Editing

Is reading that document one more time the best way for you to spend your afternoon? After several drafts of any text--be it a book manuscript, dissertation chapter, journal article, or grant application--it becomes difficult to identify if there are problems in your writing. Are there grammatical errors or awkward sentences? Is there an idea missing that could accentuate your point and make it clearer for the reader? Turning your work over to an editor saves you time and increases the likelihood that your final product will read clearly and compellingly.

Academic Editing

What I Offer

I edit book manuscripts, dissertations, articles, and grant proposals for academics and researchers in the humanities, social sciences, and health sciences (public health and health services research).

I eliminate grammar errors and confusing language.

I check for consistent formatting throughout your documents.

I verify that your manuscript complies with a journal or university's submission guidelines.

I make sure that nothing distracts from the excellence of your research.

I help you find and foreground your argument.

I identify areas where more evidence is needed to support your claims, and where content can be cut without sacrificing your argument.

Why Use an Editor?

The rule of the game for researchers is "publish or perish." You invest a lot of time and energy into writing up your research findings, and your reputation depends on whether your peers positively review and publish your work. Why would you risk submitting a manuscript to a reviewer that had flaws in the language, narrative, or argumentation? By hiring an editor, you can feel more confident that you are submitting a polished product and increase the likelihood that your work will earn you a degree, or be accepted for publication, or win you a grant.

Why Choose Me?

I have a lot of experience reading other people's work!

"I hired Avigail to provide big-picture developmental suggestions and edits on my book manuscript, and am delighted with the results. We established goals for the editing process together, and she kept those front-and-centre as she read the manuscript, providing me with a reader's report full of insightful questions and suggestions, and a checklist to help implement them. I would recommend her services to any academic looking to improve their writing process."

"I am a historian of philosophy. I am not a native English speaker, so I hired Avigail to proofread a paper that I was preparing for a conference in English. I was not looking just for a spelling or grammar proofreading. I was looking for the careful and “brave” editor which I had never found before. I wanted my editor to make my text more natural to a native English speaker, even if it meant completely changing the structure of a sentence, shortening it, or replacing words with synonyms which fit better. Avigail’s editing has been exactly what I was looking for, and even more. She made my text more natural to a native speaker, by changing the structure of sentences, replacing words in order to avoid repetitions or to be more accurate, and offering me different options for adjusting sentences when they were unclear. Also, she added comments in order to help me to understand the reasons for these changes, and send me a general commentary, which provided an overview for the edits she made. I really appreciated these comments and explanations, because they will be very useful to me when writing my next papers in English. Finally, Avigail is very accurate in delivery times as well."

Laura N.

Rates and Turnaround Times

For each individual project, I charge a flat project fee that takes into account: